EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR'S REPORT Mary Werderitch, IFSA Executive Director

From the May 2005 newsletter... Mary Werderitch
This is been a wonderful year for the Illinois Fire Safety Alliance. New exciting programs have been developed, been implemented and are new and will be available soon. It has been a few months of "put your skates on and keep on going". I wonder if I'm too old to be skating? I am thinking not. I do so enjoy meeting all of you and sharing the wonderful programs our organization has available to you.

Special thanks to all of you for your feedback on our last newsletter. It is always nice to hear from all of you and appreciate your taking the time to let us know what you think of our programs.

Burn Camp

It's hard to believe this will be the 15th anniversary of camp. So many of you have been an important part of this wonderful effort. Whether you donated time, sent T-Shirts, came out and helped; just know you made a difference. We have watched our campers go through 8 years as campers, on to Counselor-In-Training, Junior Counselors and now full-time volunteers for the week at camp.

Camp will be held from June 19 to June 25th this year. Visitor's Day for all our sponsors and fire departments will be on Wednesday, June 25th. If you haven't been at Visitor's Day in recent years or come every year, please join us. You really need to witness for yourself what camp has grown to be.

Showcase Roadshow

As Mike Figolah said when we came up with the idea "be careful what you wish for"! He was right, but we are so delighted. We've already done two and have about 25 more departments from all over the state of Illinois that have offered to host this wonderful event. The evaluations the attendees have submitted to us are proof that we are reaching our goal. The goal being the team effort of bringing about awareness of the programs that the Office of the State Fire Marshal and the Illinois Fire Safety Alliance have available for the asking.

My goal is to meet all of you, one Showcase Roadshow at a time. Anyone, with the same mission of prevention we have, is someone we would like to meet!

Get Fired Up About Fire Safety Interactive CD

We just previewed the interactive CD. It promises to be a wonderful tool for the schools, fire departments and the children and families in our State. If you haven't signed up for your free copy, please do so with the order form in this newsletter. They'll be ready very soon.